Alternative Timeline: XXXV

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With a casual flick of Grindelwald's wand, Lae felt a sudden weightlessness. Her hair began weaving, serpentine, through the air around her head, like it would flow below water, and her shoes broke away from the floor.

"Let me down!"

"All things in time," he replied simply, letting her glide idly to a spot beside him up amongst the duelling Ministry members.

She glowered at him when she finally stood firmly on solid ground. "This is not what I meant and you know it."

"True, but what else could you expect from a cruel uncle, such as I?" he mused, a glint of wickedness alighting in his blue and black eyes. "Perhaps it would be kinder to leave you here, so you need not suffer my presence."

Great. He planned to hold that lie from the trial over her head forever, didn't he?

Lae laughed nervously. "Let's not be hasty now, Uncle."

"Hasty... like a certain thirteen year old witch running off from her caring uncle without a word and later cursing him with his back turned? Would that be considered hasty?"

She flinched. Possibly, she deserved that.

A warm hand, circling around her back, squeezed her shoulder in jest. "So serious. You know I mean not a single word. You can't fault me for catching up on four years of lost teasing."

Subconsciously, she leaned into his touch, a weight leaving her chest she didn't even feel until it was long gone. "Now isn't the time to start. We're a bit busy at the moment. I hope you came in here with a plan."

"A plan? Never."

He always had a plan.

"Well, while you figure that out, I've left something of mine down there." She squinted around at the clusters of combatants, finally landing on Tom, looking far more alive weaving a vast web of curses at Aurors and other Ministry members than she'd ever seen him. The Guant ring glittered on his hand. Sticking close to his back, unbelievably laughing, stood Rabastan dueling a stout wizard in burgundy robes, with Fenella tucked close to his side. "A few things," Lae amended fondly.

"Ah, yes, the Horcrux boy. I have not forgotten about him." Grindelwald ran an assessing eye over Tom, obviously recognizing him from their last encounter. "A decent enough fighter, at least, but I don't think he's smart enough for my niece. His plan to get you out of here was worse than mine. His escape route is rife with all sorts of unpredictable elements. Fire? Really?"

"I thought you didn't have a plan?" she needled.

His arm around her shoulder rose to pinch her cheek as he said, "Cheeky." Then, he pulled away, slipping off his long, purple and gold coat to slip it over her shoulders. She startled slightly at the sudden weight. It smelled of him, of smoldering firewood and fresh pine. "Because you obviously have such high standards for your rescue—"

"I could have figured something out eventually."

"—I can't bear to disappoint. Go, fetch your things. Be quick about it."

She took a step, pausing to ask, "Can I borrow your wand?"

The frank look he gave her was answer enough. "I'm the most wanted man in the room, my dear. I quite imagine I'll need it more than you."

Expecting as much, she only nodded, but then he continued, "However, you do make a good point. I can't very well leave you unarmed..." He surveyed the enemy wizards surrounding them like a critical buyer at a stall. Miraculously, they had all been too otherwise detained to turn their focus on Grindelwald yet. His followers, many of whom turned out to be either seemingly respectable Ministry workers, or otherwise temporarily assuming the identity of Ministry workers, much the same way her uncle had. Right on time, an enemy wizard tore away from the fray to target her uncle. "That one will do. Take his wand." He pressed the Elder Wand into her hands, leaning in to whisper, "You have thirty seconds."

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